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I've raised the issue of our game freezes on the NorbSoftDev forum and Norb has asked us to collect information on it by doing this:

In your sowgb.ini file, add the following:

[Debug]
DbgLvl=2
MPLog=1

This will dump a log file of the MP game packets into your work folder. Have everyone in the game do this this. Now when you play and have a problem. Grab all the files and send them to our support email please.

work/sowgb.log
work/sowmp_*****.log

Two files from each player, the mp logs will grow and need to be manually deleted. So just grab the latest one when you collect them.

After activiating the debug mode in the sowgb.ini you will see a pretty large and live-adjusting status screen in-game.
For an ACW general this could become distracting, but by clicking "U" you can hide this.

Ok, Leffe and Ararog, copy all of today's MP logs (even the one that didn't break) with the SOWGB.log into a folder named with your SoW MP name and the date. Zip that up, host it somewhere and I'll combine them all to send off to Norb.

This report is from my perspective, so might not be entirely accurate for areas out of my field of view. I spent all of my time on the left of the Union line.

We (the Union) started in the fields west of the Peach Orchard. The map is dominated by the Round Tops, so whoever held them would win the day, so we immediately started off towards them. We were dismayed to discover that the Rebs had beat us there with Doug's division on the Round Tops and Leffe's division extending the line north along a prominent ridge. TC moved off to occupy Devil's Den (a rocky area filled with huge boulders) while I faced down Leffe (Heth).

Leffe's (Heth's) division was well entrenched on his ridge line with regiments sheltering behind thick stone walls interspersed here and there with artillery batteries. A frontal assault would be murderous, but I had little choice. TC occupied Doug with artillery and sharpshooter skirmishing with the hope of provoking him to move off his superb defensive terrain and I ordered my division forward to engage Leffe (Heth).

If I was to prevail, I would have to use the only advantage I held over Leffe - I held the initiative. By adopting a defensive posture Leffe had left it to me to direct the course of the battle. I had two of my three brigades already formed facing Leffe's division, just outside of musket range. I moved my reserve brigade out to the left of my line and waited to see how Leffe would react. Leffe countered by deploying his reserve further to his right. I sensed an opportunity. Leffe had dangerously overextended his line, his defences were still formidable, but brittle. Enough pressure at one point could split his line in two.

I ordered my reserve brigade far out to the right of the Confederate line and had it drive inwards, while my centre brigade was ordered forward to fix the enemy before him. A final brigade was left in place to the right to deter Leffe from moving out to flank my attack.

It was a case of grinding down the opposition. Some of my regiments were able to shelter behind stone walls as they did battle with the men of Leffes division behind their stonewalls on the opposite end of the field.

On the Rebel left (the Union right) Doug had decided it was time to sweep through TCs division in Devils Den with the hope of eventually rolling up my division. It was an ambitious strategy and TC showed no sign of trouble in holding off Dougs troopers. TC even offered to relieve my hitherto uncommitted brigade.

I eagerly accepted TC's proposal as by now a gap had appeared between Leffe's two rightmost brigades. I redeployed my uncommitted brigade to exploit this gap. Leffe immediately countered by bringing out the rest of his division in an attempt to flank my assault, but TC had it covered. De Trobriand's brigade smashed into Leffes exposed left flank. The flankers had been flanked.

From there it was simply a matter of maintaining the pressure on Leffe. One of his brigades managed to hold out to the north, but it was increasingly isolated. Leffe's (Heth's) division was almost comprehensively destroyed by the time my division reached the slopes of Little Round Top. After successfully keeping Doug's assault into the Devil's Den at bay, TC joined the general assault on LRT. My division faltered here, and on reflection I shouldn't have pressed the attack before supporting artillery could be brought up, but despite refusing his flank Doug quickly revealed himself to be out of reserves. It was only a matter of time.

That was an outstanding battle. Thanks for your well done report, Monty. I wish you could stop that animated battle picture so I could look at it step by step how you decimated my command ;-)

When Doug and I entered the game right behind the round tops we were already in high spirits, I mean how could you possibly dare to attack us here?!

Doug occupied Devils Den in the beginning but withdrew when you marched on him, and wasn't able to capture it back.
I underestimated Montys force flanking me on the right, and he could fight my units where they were too thin and had no direct artillery support.
And that one brigade of me in the wheatfield trying to stabilize my position was literally routed in no-time. Next time I should better TC them...

I remember the game where we attacked down from Cemetery Ridge onto Taneytown Road and heavily routed the AI (I think Ali attacked down from the ridge and I flanked down Taneytown Road?), and Monty's pushing the enemy off Little Round Top, so clearly he's had some practice (although it looks like TC did the grunt work on that one?).

It'd be good to figure out the multiplayer crashes. I guess I'm responsible for a lot of them, but clearly I'm not the only one having problems.

@Leffe
I thought Doug had initially occupied the Devils Den! My initial orders to TC were to engage him there with the hope of compelling him to leave the Round Tops to reinforce it. Afterwards I wasn't too sure if I had just mistaken TC's troops for Rebs.

@Gap
I think things have improved since I got my new router. The game now recovers from some hangs and that never happened before.

@Leffe
I thought Doug had initially occupied the Devils Den! My initial orders to TC were to engage him there with the hope of compelling him to leave the Round Tops to reinforce it. Afterwards I wasn't too sure if I had just mistaken TC's troops for Rebs.

Yes, Doug was holding Devils Den with one brigade. My orders for him were to scout ahead for federal troops. He then fell back to our main line on the round tops. I discussed with Doug the possibility to flank TC from the south, but wasn't aware he was actually doing it, since I was too occupied with you, Monty.

So one thing I noticed about the battle last night was that I barely interacted with units from another human player's corps. I fought my little corner, and once we had basically won I started to mop up with other people. Is this a general feature of the larger battles, or were we unlucky that our centre folded and the battle was about figuring out who was flanking whom in isolated skirmishes?

We don't usually play army sized battles, but road congestion alone would militate against corps acting too close together. That said, you would expect the smaller Union corps to cooperate more often than the generally much larger Confederate corps. Indeed, on the second day it was Hancock's II Corps that had to save the day when Sickles III Corps collapsed.

Coop battles against larger AI

Sometimes I have the feeling that our coop battles are a little bit too easy. Either because the AI is not always very clever, or because we are veteran generals by now, who communicate exemplary even under heavy fire ;-)

Now wouldn't it be cool to win an attack or hunt them down battle against a stronger enemy? Or to defend an objective against an enemy three times your force? Or beginning an engagement when you have no idea how strong the enemy is in fact?

The MP options in SoW are a bit limited, and when the host doesn't check "balance forces" you dont know for sure how strong the enemy will turn out to be. The enemy could even be weaker than yours.

Now I did a little research on the custom OOBs we all have installed as a mod. And I found a number of combinations where it is clear that you will face a stronger enemy in-game. This is done by selecting "division vs. divison" or "corps vs. corps", a specific general and his force and of course you don't activate "balance forces". In some combinations there are several enemy generals possible and thus it is not always clear how strong the enemy is. And this, I think, is a nice feature ;-)

I compiled a list in excel with 53 such settings. Now Monty or whoever is hosting can search the list and pick a suitable challenge for the number of players.

My main intent were coop battles, but I think the list is also good for unbalanced attack/defend versus games.